Expectations
by iheartcoco
Summary: Remus is surprised to find Sirius actually doing his homework, and becomes even more alarmed when his friend gets upset. No slash. Strong language. One shot.


You could have knocked Remus over with a phoenix feather. He had just entered the common room after being discharged from the hospital wing - his transformation from two nights ago had been particularly violent - to find Sirius sat alone, hunched over a pile of dusty books and a long roll of parchment. This scene was surprising because of two things: one, Sirius was never sat alone. He was either accompanied by one of his friends, being swooned over by a group of love drunk teenage girls, or both. And the second thing was that Sirius never did his homework. His idea of homework was quickly copying Remus's ten minutes before it was due.

The common room was empty except from Sirius and a small huddle of second year girls sat by the window, neither of which looked up when Remus arrived. Remus tried not to look too amused as he walked over to Sirius and sat down by his side. Sirius didn't even look up, he continued writing furiously across the parchment, roughly crossing out a few words every so often.

"You feeling alright, Pads?" Remus asked.

Sirius flinched like he had just been woken from a deep sleep. His grey eyes merely flashed towards his friend before returning to the paper. "I'm fine, I'm fine," Sirius muttered distractedly.

"Where's James? And Peter?" Remus said.

"Detention," Sirius said shortly.

Remus noticed the balled up pieces of parchment littering the floor by Sirius's feet. ""You know, if you did your homework more often you probably wouldn't find it so hard," He remarked, leaning back in his seat.

"For fucks sake!" Sirius suddenly yelled. His quill snapped as his fist slammed against the parchment. Ink leaked all over the messy paragraphs.

The second years hastily got up and disappeared to their dorm as Sirius furiously began to crumple the ruined essay in his hands. Remus watched him before gingerly saying, "It was just a joke, Pads..."

"It's not a joke though, is it?" Sirius snapped, scooping the paper balls in to his arms and tossing them in to the fire. The flames immediately began to lick them. The two boys watched in silence as the paper was slowly reduced to ash.

"Was it the Transfiguration essay?" Remus said eventually, "Because I can write it up for you, if you like."

"No," Sirius said coldly, "I want to do it myself."

There was a pause before Remus said, "What's this about really, Pads?"

"My parents wrote to me. They were sent an owl telling them how badly I'm doing," Sirius mumbled.

"And what did they say?" Remus asked softly. Sirius rarely spoke about his parents or life at home, and whenever he did it was never lovingly. Remus knew it was a tender subject.

"Just the usual load of Hipprogriff shit," Sirius spat, "You know, how much of a failure I am. A total disgrace to the Black name. How I should have been sorted in to Hufflepuff instead, and did I know how well Regulus was doing?"

"Don't listen to them, Pads," Remus suggested, "They don't know you like we do. You don't need brains to make you a good person."

"They'd help though, wouldn't they?" Sirius said bitterly, and all too quickly in an attempt to cover up his embarrassment of being complimented by Remus, then Sirius sighed, "It's not like I'm really _bothered _if they're proud of me or anything... But it'd make a nice change from being degraded all of the time."

Remus sighed. "I know you probably don't want to hear this Pads, but maybe you just have to come to terms with the fact your parents might never really be... accepting. They're stubborn, you know? Too wrapped up in their own morals," He said. He hoped that he hadn't angered Sirius with his words.

But Sirius smiled. "You know Moons, that's what I love about you," He chuckled, running a hand through his dark hair, "You're so honest, but you do it in such a gentle way."

"Well, you know," Remus mumbled, staring back in to the fire.

"But you're absolutely right," Sirius sighed and flopped backwards in his seat, "Fuck them. Fuck them both. I don't think they'll ever be happy until the day I come home with a Muggle's head on a spear."

It was a horrible joke, but they both laughed because it was true. "Yep," Remus sighed.

"And anyway, I already have a family," Sirius smiled, "You, James, Peter. _You _lot are my real brothers, not that soft git Regulus..."

"Good," Remus said, smiling back, then he looked around at the mess on the table, "So, now we've established that it no longer matters what brains you have, are you sure you really want to do that essay by yourself?"

"Ah, actually, Moons, I'd be really chuffed if, er... you could do it," Sirius said with a little cough, "Wasn't going that well, you see."

Remus sighed. "Right. I'll need fresh parchment, a new quill, and you can pass me that book over there for starters..." He ordered, rolling up his shirt sleeves and pulling the little table closer to him.

Sirius jumped up. So what if you couldn't choose your family, at least you could always pick your friends, and he had the best of the bunch.

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**I really need to stop ending my fics on cheesy notes. I won't lie, I was pretty lazy when proof reading this, so if its teeming with errors I apologise. Reviewreviewreview.**


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